Ambiguity
by Mellomailbox
Summary: When L runs into Mello during a case in Moscow, he struggles with hiding his past from Raito and trying to help the young heir. It seems that Mello's predicament might be too much for even L to help him with, though. Raito/L Mello/Matt
1. Chapter 1

Title: Ambiguity

Rating: T for now.

Pairings: L/Raito Mello/Matt

Summery: After Higuchi is captured, evidence pointing to Misa leads for them to be charged with being the first and second Kira's. Raito never gets his hands on the DeahNote, and L keeps him under observation until he can prove his guilt. Now working on cases together, their relationship has escalated and emotions run high. Running into Mafia plots and his old troublemaker heirs won't help the confusion, either.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Mamaison Pokrovka Suite Hotel, or Death Note.

"… It's your fault for walking in the snow barefoot, Ryuuzaki!"

L frowned, his arms tightening their hold on Raito's neck. He was shivering violently, making a valiant attempt to hide this fact with the stubborn set of his jaw. His raven hair was dusted with enough snow to make him look like a dark-chocolate pastry with white icing. If he wasn't in so much pain, L would have contemplated the likeliness of acquiring the object of his analogy.

As it was, Raito shouldered his way into their hotel room with a shivering insomniac in his arms and a very annoyed president of Interpol chirping in his ear. The silver bug was starting to slip out of its hold it was vibrating so much from use, and Raito continued to stream curses at the carelessness of his partner. He held L away from his body and dropped him carelessly onto their bed, two fingers pressing into the button of the bug in his ear as he tried to calm the chattering Interpol officers.

"…He was right there! Now that he knows his location has been compromised the element of surprise has been lost. This is a huge blunder on L's part…" The director was yelling, and Raito shut the door with the heel of his foot as he spoke in the most soothing voice he could conjure.

"I know, I know. We spotted him on accident, Director. If the meeting hadn't been so spontaneous, we would have been far more prepared than we were initially. I'm going to have to connect with you later, Sir. I need to attend to some very important matters at the moment."

"Wait a minute--!" Raito clicked off the bug with an agitated grunt, yanking the device from his ear and throwing at against the wall violently. "Damn it!"

"Your language is quite offensive, Raito-kun." The monotonous drawl only succeeded to infuriate the brunette even more as he narrowed his eyes at the detective sitting on their unmade bed. He had one of his feet in his hands and was trying to blow on it, his nose and fingers red from what had to be the first stages of frost-bite. His shivering had worsened when he entered the warmth of the room to the point that it looked like he was having a small seizure. Raito let out the breath that he was holding, all of his anger fizzling with it. He removed his knee-length coat and hung it on the post of the bed after deciding that the large flowered comforter would warm up his partner more efficiently than the thin material of his trench coat.

L's teeth chattered loudly as he rubbed his numb feet, leaning into the warm material draped over his shoulders with a grateful sigh. "I apologize for my carelessness, Raito-kun." His voice was surprisingly calm in contrast to his shuddering form, and Raito rolled his eyes at the man before moving towards the small kitchen a few feet away.

"I would say that it's fine Ryuuzaki, except for the fact that it isn't. Heischner saw us. I'm sure you know why that's bad for many reasons other than the obvious. We better hope that he doesn't remember your face." Raito pulled up the sleeves of his black sweater as he turned on the faucet, placing his fingers under the water as he waited for it to heat. His other hand retrieved the empty complimentary ice bucket that came with most hotel rooms and placed it in the sink as he waited for the water to steam. He turned his head to the side so that L could hear him over the water.

"What in the world possessed you to go after him like that?"

L looked perturbed with his feet, his head cocked to the side as he still attempted to warm the frozen flesh. The tips of the appendages were turning a disturbing shade of purple, and he brought them so close to his mouth that he was practically eating them. "It wasn't Heischner I was going after. He was just a very unfortunate coincidence. I thought that I saw an old acquaintance in the crowd, and I acted rashly."

Raito blinked and attempted to process the idea that L actually had friends. It was so absurd that he almost started to laugh. Almost. The bucket was filled as he grabbed a few small washclothes, making his way over to L with his remedy in hand. "Who was it?"

The question was simple, yet L made no attempt to answer it. He opted to shove one of his feet in his mouth, instead, as Raito sat down next to him. The comforter covered his head and shoulders, and he looked quite comical sitting there with a foot in his mouth. Raito hadn't noticed L's strange action, and had a washcloth dunked in the hot water and wrung out before he even noticed the spectacle.

"L, what the hell are you doing?! Do you know how many germs are on the bottom of your feet?!" He wrapped a hand around L's ankle and pulled it out of his mouth. A thin line of spit followed after, and the former Kira suspect grimaced in disgust as he covered the foot with the washcloth. "Especially because you never wear shoes! You're acting exceptionally idiotic lately, Ryuuzaki. What's gotten you so rattled?"

L frowned at the comment, his eyes slitting dangerously as his entire disposition changed. "Have you forgotten, Raito, that I am the greatest detective and most likely smartest person in the world?" He hissed, purposely dropping the honorific. "Or have you already become so comfortable with your situation that you have neglected the fact that you are still under suspicion for being Kira? Just because the case has gone cold and I have given you certain liberties does not mean that you can speak to me as an equal."

Raito's face went red in anger, and he opened his mouth as if to retort.

"Don't bite the hand that feeds you, Raito-kun. I can very easily collar you again."

With a strangled sound of frustration Raito threw the bucket at Ryuuzaki and stormed from the room, grabbing his coat off the post as he went. L flinched at the slam that accompanied Raito's departure before staring at the mess left on his bed. Not sure what to do with it, he opted to stare at it for a while before finally deciding that dry clothes would be the best choice at the moment. He didn't want to catch a cold, after all. Smiling smugly that his distraction had worked, the detective hopped awkwardly off of the mattress and padded comfortably toward the bathroom for a much needed bath. Hopefully Raito would sulk for a long time.

--

_That stupid, emotionally retarded bastard! How could he still say those things to me, after having caught Higuchi and Misa?! He probably doesn't think he did anything wrong by saying something like that to his lover, either._

Raito clenched his fists tighter into his jacket as he walked, the Russian snow whipping at his face painfully as he glared at anyone who looked his way.

_There's nothing I can do about it. If 'all powerful' L believes that I'm guilty, despite all the evidence pointing towards my innocence, I'll only be free when he decides to give up. _

Raito grimaced, and rubbed his wrists. L wasn't known to _ever_ give up.

_At least I'm not in those ridiculous handcuffs anymore…_

--

L hummed quietly to himself as he exited the lukewarm water. The entire bathroom was a disaster area; bottles of shampoo and bars of soap laying open across the ground, towels tumbling out of the small cabinet, water sloshed everywhere on the tiled floor. Any _normal_ person would be inclined to clean it up, but L simply stepped over his pile of dirty clothes and opted to let Raito do the work. He'd never cleaned a mess in his life, after all, and they couldn't afford to have any hotel personnel in their room.

After pulling his head through his baggy white shirt, he ran his fingers through his tangled black locks and looked at the clock on the wall. Raito had been gone for almost forty-five minutes; twenty minutes longer than his usual sulking.

_He could have run into trouble… Russian gangs are quite fearsome, after all…_

L shrugged and turned to his laptop, getting himself settled with a pile of doughnuts as he began to compose an E-mail.

_Rodger_

_I understand that it is not customary for me to send you a direct E-mail, but the matters are important enough that I think you will forgive me._

_I recently saw Mello in Moscow, Russia. Specifically on Ulitsa Maroseyka, not far from where an operation I was conducting was taking place. In a moment of haste I acted rashly, and because of the unpredictability of the moment I made a grave mistake in a very important case. This mistake was caused by Mello, and I would like to know what reason he has to be in Moscow. He is not of age to leave the institution yet, so I am assuming you are not aware of his absence._

_I am currently staying at the Mamaison Pokrovka Suite Hotel, and have enclosed the most likely places in the area that Mello would be residing. Please come and collect him immediately. I would advise that you check for Matt's whereabouts as well, and delete this message immediately before destroying your computer to prevent Matt from hacking it and acquiring my location. If you must contact me directly, use the line that I have set up with my mobile phone. _

_L_

After confirming that the E-mail had been sent, he proceeded to download his hard-drive onto a disk and wipe his computer clean. L sighed in annoyance as he began reinstalling all of his information, nomming on a chocolate doughnut in impatience. He hated this part; it was always so boring.

Speaking of boredom, Raito hadn't yet returned. L wouldn't have worried his spiky little head about it, if it wasn't for the fact that he was bored and Raito was _very _entertaining. Leaving his computer to its devices, L picked up his phone with two fingers and pressed the speed-dial for Raito's number. He was bored and wanted entertainment. And he _always_ got what he wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N : The Russian is bold, italics are phone conversations, and plain text is English. It would be practical to assume that when they are alone they speak Japanese with each other, seeing as L is fluent and it's Raito's first language.

As you can tell by the deteriorating quality of this fic, I need a beta. Still not much plot, but that should soon change in the upcoming chapters. Any guesses on what Mello's up to, yet?

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note.

--

"Shit, Mello! It's fucking _freezing_ here!"

Mello turned to raise an eyebrow at his friend, leaning back in his leather chair so that he could get a better look.

"Are you serious? We're in Russia, Matt. What did you expect, bikini's and sunshine?"

The teen shoved his hands in between his legs in an attempt to warm up the numb appendages, cigarette dangling from his lips as he burrowed further into the couch.

"Only if you wear—Ow!" Matt yelped and grabbed at the offensive object as it landed next to him.

"Dude, what would you have done if that had gone off?" Matt laughed, holding up the gun while trying to look angry. The blonde pursed his twitching lips before turning back to the manila case files in front of himself.

"It didn't."

Matt rubbed the spot on his arm where he had been hit and went back to his work as well, muttering, "Violent shit."

--

Raito Yagami was not lost.

He was standing in between two isles of a Russian convenience store, a bag of chips in one hand and a map in the other, but he was by no means _lost. _

The clerk was eyeing him strangely from the other side of the counter, and Raito took the hint and meandered his way towards the man.

"**How much?"**

The man had wavy brown hair and a beard, and appeared to be in his late forties, although the way he glared at him made Raito feel like a grandson who had eaten all the cookies. The man answered him, and Raito was about to pull out the amount when a brown bag with bright pink lettering caught his attention.

**"Шоколад-кофе" ********He read, translating to himself. Chocolate coffee. He felt the urge to buy it, for whatever reason; he didn't like sweet coffee, and he was sure that L had much more expensive and better tasting flavored coffee at his dispense.**

He found himself reaching for the bag, though, and before he knew it he was walking out of the store with a map, a bag of chips, a bag of chocolate coffee and an angry Russian glaring at his back.

Once again out in the freezing wind, Raito Yagami was now not-lost with a bag of goodies, instead of not-lost with nothing to show for it. As he processed the map in front of him he was actually working on L's current puzzle in the vast expanse that was his mind.

Why would L say those things? Sure he could be a selfish bastard, but even socially retarded L knew that snapping at him like that was unacceptable to most of the general public.

Then again, so was how they usually spent their nights.

Raito shook his head violently, sidestepping around a patch of ice as he ran through what had happened before L's strange behavior. They'd been staking out Heischner when L had suddenly leapt from his seat and ran out into the snow. Raito had chased after him, and eventually caught up and lifted him out of the snow. They'd returned to the hotel, Raito had criticized him for his actions and questioned… Ah. There it was. Whoever L thought he'd seen in the crowd, he didn't want Raito to know.

As if sensing Raito's train of thought, his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. The only one who had his number was L, and he contemplated ignoring the detective before deciding that only bad things would stem from that path.

He veered into an ally and away from the whipping snow before opening the phone and bringing it to his ear.

"_Hello? L?"_

"_No, this is Misa-Misa. Can you not tell?"_

Raito frowned, grinding his teeth together irritably.

"_Shut up, Ryuuzaki."_

"…_I have made a break in the case. Return immediately."_

Rolling his eyes, he shifted to balance the phone onto his shoulder before reaching into the plastic bag and pulling out the bag of chips.

"_No you didn't. You just don't-_pop- _want to tell me that you're bored and miss me."_

There was silence on the other end as Raito noisily crunched on a chip, marveling at how quickly it seemed to freeze from the point it left the bag. If the silence meant anything, his nonchalant snacking was annoying the detective as planned.

"_Raito, I will properly apologize when you return. Take two lefts and then a right." _–Click-

It figured that L had bugged his phone. Raito snorted and returned the chips to his bag, not quite able to be angry at his whims. Why was it that the longer he spent with the man, the easier it was to deal with him?

--

L was scrolling through the files that they had collected so far on Heischner. He'd just gotten off the phone with Interpol, and was in a foul mood. He'd gotten Raito off the hook, though, and they wouldn't need to meet with them unless a huge development in the case was made. That was always a plus for anti-social L.

Heischner was a serial drug dealer/ child molester/ terrorist who also happened to be very high on Interpol's most wanted list to parallel his spot on the Russian Mafia's most valuable list. There was no image available for him, although he had been described as being "Normal, like someone you would see on the street." Although Heischner had seen them, they had not seen him. All they had on him was video footage that made him indistinguishable.

L was in the process of profiling him, with Raito's help, and he didn't like the conclusions that they had been coming to.

Glancing at the elegant clock once more he estimated that Raito would arrive in three…two…one…

Nothing.

Frowning, he hopped from his swivel chair and padded towards the door. Raito was probably just outside, wimping out on actually confronting the detective.

He wrapped his hand around the metal knob tightly, and as he began to turn, he was met with none other than---

A door in the face.

--

Raito blinked at the man sprawled on the floor in front of him, his numb mind taking a while to process what had happened. In a moment he was next to L, lifting him so that he was in a sitting position before checking his face to see if anything was broken.

L swatted away his hand, scooting backwards as he rubbed the side of his face.

"I'm fine, Raito. I should have seen that coming…"

The boy frowned and crawled over to L, who had his back to the far wall and was giving him a curious look.

Realization donned on him as Raito made no attempt to stop his advance, his palms on either side of his thighs as L unconsciously brought his hands to the brunette's shoulders. He leaned up, muffling L's protests with his lips.

The kiss was slow at first, just a soft greeting. As Raito's lips warmed up, though, it became deeper and more heated. Before it could get too serious Raito pulled away, resting his forehead against L's.

L's eyes were half-lidded and his breath was coming out thick and hot on Raito's lips. He struggled to recapture his thoughts, but when Raito kissed him like _that _there was nothing he could do about cognitive abilities.

"What are you hiding from me, L?" The boy murmured as he nuzzled the others neck, making the question seem fleeting and unimportant.

Warning sirens went off throughout L's subconscious as he pushed the other away, eyes hardening as both opened their mouths in preparation for an argument.

They were interrupted, though, by the ringing of L's secure line.


End file.
